After graduating from college, Melissa Malone landed a position with Orchard Creek, one of the finest children’s boutiques in the Boston area. Three years ago, Melissa was promoted to Assistant Buyer. Among her other responsibilities, Melissa is now the sole buyer for the Children’s Accessories Department.

Orchard Creek has successfully been selling children’s clothing over 25years. Its merchandising assortment includes classic children’s clothing, fashionable accessories, and unique gift items for infants, toddlers, boys, and girls.  Employee takes great pride in this store. The boutique, well known for its merchandise quality and exceptional customer service, has received many awards, including the “Readers’ Choice Award” and “Top Pick” for Best Children’s Clothing from local newspapers as well as regional magazine.

This fall, however, the Children’s Accessory Department is failing short of meeting its sales goal. During an October meeting with the department sales manager, the merchandise manager, and the advertising manager, Melissa was directed to examine her department’s performance. Within two days, Melissa must analyze the performance of the Children’s Accessories Department, compare it with the department’s six moth plan, calculate the department’s open-to-buy for the remainder of October, and identify feasible options for getting the department back on track.

Melissa reviewed her six-month plan for Orchard Creek’s Children’s Accessory Department, including the actual performance for August and September. She also observed the department’s current performance from October 1 through October 15. In her midmonth analysis, Melissa observed the following:

• Planned sales for October were $7,891
• Actual sales from October 1 through October 15 were $3,529
• The value merchandise on-order scheduled to arrive before the end of October is $2,749
• Planned markdown for October was 1,560
• Actual markdown taken from October 1 through October 15 was $715
• Stock on hand as of October 15 is valued at $22,160
• Planed EOM for October were $18,272
• Markup % is 61.5 %

What are at least two actions Melissa could propose to improve the sales performance of the Children’s Accessories Department?

Tesco Exits South Korea

Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen (Cohen), who invested his serviceman’s gratuity of £30 in a grocery stall. The first private label product introduced by Cohen was Tesco Tea. The name Tesco was a combination of the initials of the tea supplier TE Stockwell, and the first two letters of Cohen’s name. Tesco opened its first store in 1929 in Edgware, London. In 1947, Tesco Stores (Holdings) Limited was floated on the Stock Exchange with a share price of 25 pence and the first supermarket was opened in 1956 in Maldon, Essex, England. The first superstore was opened in 1968 in Crawley, West Sussex. In the 1960s, Tesco went on an expansion spree and acquired several store chains. The Retail Price Maintenance (RPM) Act in Britain prohibited large retailers from pricing goods below a price agreed upon by the suppliers. To overcome this obstacle to price reduction, Tesco introduced trading stamps. These were given to customers when they purchased products and could be traded for cash or other gifts. RPM was abolished in 1964, and from then on, Tesco was able to offer competitively priced products to its customers in a more direct manner. The first Tesco superstore, with an area of 90,000 square feet, was opened in 1967.

TESCO’S GLOBAL EXPANSION
Tesco’s global expansion began in 1979, when it entered Ireland by acquiring a 51% equity stake in ‘3 Guys stores’. In 1986, Tesco divested itself of the stores after it found that it could not sustain its operations in the country as customers were rejecting the British products that it sold. During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Tesco examined the options available in the US and European countries after the British government introduced new regulations on ‘out-of-town’ stores. In December 1992, Tesco entered France by acquiring an 85% equity holding in Catteau supermarkets, which operated under the Cedico brand with 72 superstores, 7 hypermarkets, and 24 small stores. However, Tesco failed to sustain itself in the market due to competition from French retailers like Carrefour and Promodès. In 1995, a law was passed in France which prohibited the opening of new large retail stores. Moreover, the company failed to adapt its products to suit local tastes and lost market share. In 1996, in spite of investing an additional £ 300 million in France, sales in the country grew by a mere 1%. In the year 1997, Tesco sold its operations in France to Prom odes.

TESCO IN SOUTH KOREA
In the early 1990s, there was a growing demand from consumers in South Korea for a modern shopping experience owing to rapid economic growth and increasing disposable incomes. The government had adopted protectionist policies and the retail sector was not open for foreign direct investment (FDI). Tesco

entered South Korea in 1999 through a joint venture with Homeplus, a unit of the country’s biggest business group Samsung Corporation (Samsung) . In the next few years, Tesco became the most successful international retailer in the country. Its success was attributed to its ability to localize its products and stores to appeal to the South Korean consumers; its operating through local management; and its strong presence through different store formats. South Korea went on to become Tesco’s most successful international business in terms of revenue. As of 2014, it operated d 140 hypermarkets, 609 supermarkets, and 326 convenience stores.

TESCO’S STRATEGIES IN SOUTH KOREA
Immediately after entering into the joint venture, Tesco went about upgrading the store layouts. The stores were modified to resemble department stores, which were spacious and clean. Tesco’s stores in Korea did not resemble its stores in the UK or in other European locations like Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Ireland.

CHANGES IN THE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
In October 2012, when Tesco posted its first fall in profits in 20 years, the company also announced that its profits in South Korea would take a £ 100 million hit due to the "retail market development bill” that had been passed by the government in November 2010. However, changes in the operating environment in South Korea due to new laws that were enforced beginning 2010 to protect small retailers and merchants started to impact Tesco and other large retailers. These laws placed restrictions on the locations where supermarkets could be opened. The Distribution Industry Development Act passed in 2012 imposed restrictions on the time for which the stores could remain open and also specified that on two weekends every month the large retail stores should be closed. As most Koreans shopped during the weekends, these restrictions started to impact Tesco, which made losses in 2015. Under the impact of the global recession, the private spending in South Korea fell. Another factor that impacted Tesco in South Korea was its UK business, which was not doing well.

TESCO’S EXIT FROM SOUTH KOREA
On September 07, 2015, Tesco PLC (Tesco), a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer, announced that it had sold its South Korean business, operated under the name Homeplus, for £4.2 billion to a consortium of companies led by MBK Partners, a South Korean buyout firm. The consortium included Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Public Sector Pension Investment Board, and Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited

Question - Case study

Use the case study above to answer the question

What do you think did not work well for Tesco?

Using the Tesco Case discuss the need for companies to consider push and pull factors for international expansion.

Assume you are the owner of a very large soybean farm in Argentina, a country located in South-Eastern South America. Soybean is a commodity which is traded globally. 70% of all soybeans are used as chicken and pig feed. It has been widely recognised as a very efficient source of protein and energy.

Another use for soybeans is splitting (or crushing) it up into soybean meal and soybean oil – 80% becomes the meal and 20% the oil. Much soybeans are grown in South America (~31% of world total in Brazil, ~18% in Argentina), and demandfor the soybean, soybean meal and soybean oil is growing very fast in Asia (especially China).

One day, you received an unexpected and peculiar call from Zambia (a landlocked nation in Africa). The person over the line identified himself as a procurement officer of Livingstone International. He spoke fluent Spanish and asked if you can sell him two shipments of unprocessed soybeans. His request is large enough to clear out 80% of your annual harvest. The issue is you have never sold on the international front as you have always sold your harvest to the domestic merchants.

Question 1

As the owner of the soybean farm in Argentina, you have never sold on the international front. Research and briefly explain all the possible risks involved if your soybean farm is expanding into global trade. [Hint: Please organise all your research materials into FIVE (5) categories of risks.]

Question 2

What do you need to research about Zambia and Livingstone International in order to assess this new business opportunity for your soybean farm? What is your follow up action pertaining to the business offer from Livingstone International?[Hint: Please separate your research materials and your reflection/opinion in your answers in different paragraphs. You must indicate your final recommendation in the end. ]

Differential Calculus - [Related Rates]

—

At Noon, ship A is 200 km east of ship B and ship A is sailing north at 30 km/h. ten mins later, ship B starts to sail south at 35 km/h.

a) What is the distance between the two ships at 3pm?

b) How fast (in km/h) are the ships moving apart at 3pm?

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Source Material:

Stewart, J. (2016). Single variable calculus: early transcendentals. [Chapter 3.9]

Java Chapter 12.29 (Rename files) suppose you have a lot of files in a directory named Exercisei_j, where i and j are digits. Write a program that pads a 0 before j if j is a single digit. For example, a file named Exercise2_1 in a directory will be renamed to Exercise2_01. In Java, when you pass the symbol * from the command line, it refers to all files in the directory (see Supplement III.V). Use the following command to run your program. java Exercise12_29 * can you make a example directory with sample files.. Please type you answer. Thanks

Write a short bash program that aligns with the below functionality.

$ sh ~/cs210_list.sh

  Error: missing argument

$ echo $?

1

$ sh ~/cs210_list.sh /non-exist

  Error: ‘/non-exist’ is an invalid directory

$ echo $?

1

$ sh ~/cs210_list.sh /etc

File: aavark

File: aabbb

   Size: 16

File: aaacccc

File: aaaaddd

   Size: 1585

File: aliases~

   Size: 1686

File: aliases.db

   Size: 12288

...

Notice:

• It error checks that the first argument exists and is a directory.
• It generates an error message and returns a failure code in error situations.
• It only outputs a file size when the item is a file (and not the name of a directory).

Grading Criteria:

In my check, I will ask you to do the following checks:

• If the script has no arguments, it should:
  • Print the following: "Error: missing argument". (5pts)
  • Generate error code 1; Check this by doing the command "echo $?" right afterwards. (5pts)
• If the script is given an argument that points to an invalid directory (example: the /non-exist directory), then your code should:
  • Print the following: " Error: ‘<insert argument here>’ is an invalid directory". Don't forget to print out the provided argument. (5pts)
  • Generate error code 1; Check this by doing the command "echo $?" right afterwards. (5pts)
• Otherwise, if the directory is normal, it should run just like the question titled "Exercise: a simple loop".
  • In short, it should print the name (5pts) and size (5pts) of each file in the directory, in the exact format like above and the prior question.

Copy and paste your program below

If you’ve paid attention to the general level of prices of goods and services over time, it should come as no surprise that rising oil prices have an impact on world trade, specifically that higher transport prices serve to act as a de-facto tariff on goods that cross borders. In your opinion, what effect do you think high oil prices could have on U.S. trade with distant countries like China, and will it lead to “Made in America” being the choice of American consumers again?

If you’ve paid attention to the general level of prices of goods and services over time, it should come as no surprise that rising oil prices have an impact on world trade, specifically that higher transport prices serve to act as a de-facto tariff on goods that cross borders. In your opinion, what effect do you think high oil prices could have on U.S. trade with distant countries like China, and will it lead to “Made in America” being the choice of American consumers again?

Read Chapters 16 & 17 in America: Past and Present by Robert Divine and answer the following questions.

1. What traditions and institutions were destroyed by the conflict?

2. How did freed slaves react to their new status after the civil war?

3. How successful was the North in changing Southern society during Reconstruction.

4. What impact did the frontier have on American attitudes, behavior and institutions?

5. What developments help alleviate the hardships of life on the Great Plains?